Zeiss bins NOT

[SteelRat]

Hi all. Hope you don't mind but here's a bit of public service type stuff - from me to you.

This may not concern many of you but for those here who may at sometime think of purchasing a pair of old Zeiss 8x30 porros...

...there have been quite a few pairs advertised on the dreaded FLEABAY as genuine DDR bins when in fact they are NOT.

I am by no means a expert on this (I'm not a massive Zeiss fan myself - I prefer the russian stuff, but that's just me) but have picked up from various sites how you can tell the difference between gooduns and baduns.

Please look at the two pictures provided. The non-genuine pair may look quite smart and may actually be quite a nice pair of bins - but genuine Zeiss they are not, T3M multi coated they are not - German made they are not!!! And worth any more than £20 they really should not be.

(click to make big)

(click to make big)

There are other tells than the two I have shown such as the serial number when compaired to the model, and the location of the 'DDR' and 'Multi Coated' markings, but these are age/type specific. The two shown should keep you from buying what is at very very best; a quite nice and usable pair of Japanese binoculars, or at worst; a total lemon not worth a tenner.

The 'focus wheel tell' is a good guide for other sizes such as 7x50 and 10x50's too.

Hope I haven't upset anyone with this one (or indeed - stated the obvious) but there are way too many non-DDR pairs selling for the price of a good clean DDR pair AGAIN - and I'd just as soon hope no-one here got stung.

Cheers all!

[FLO]

Good post SR,

Also worth mentioning that the genuine Carl Zeiss Jena shown in the first image are the East German variety. Whilst still good, they are noticeably inferior to the West German Carl Zeiss.

[SteelRat]

Thanks Steve. Like I said; I ain't no expert on Zeiss - they just aint ma thang. Just dont like to see folk get ripped.